Not very far from sexual harassment

Saint Patrick, late fifth century Romano-Irish Christian bishop and missionary he was said to be, would in time come to be known as the Apostle of Ireland, and canonized later –– sometime in the seventh century –– as the country’s primary patron saint.

And he would get his day –– St Patrick’s Day –– celebrated every March 17, the date of his death, wherever the Irish were gathered.

The occasion, commemorated inside and outside Ireland as a religious and cultural holiday, has not been without its Irish folk music, reels and jigs; nor without its overflowing beer and raucous Irish merriment, in a sea or backdrop of verdurous green. Nor has it been without its street parades; and in most recent times, its very own controversy.

Last Monday, March 17, the Irish celebrants were forced again to consider as well their sexuality –– more or less!

As we said, on St Patrick’s Day, the Irish, wherever they be, celebrate their saint and their Irishness. Their annual marches in New York City and Boston, among the largest of all in the United States, might have taken their traditional routes without incident, had the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) community not insist they wanted to show themselves and their wares conspicuously as they sauntered along the parade routes.

The parade organizers would have none of it: not the gays’ participation in the parades as citizens; just their carrying of LGBT signs and banners. After all, the affair wasn’t about them, but about St Patrick and Irish folklore. Furthermore, the LGBT’s presentment would not be contiguous to the Roman Catholic Church’s values, sullied as they have been over the years by rogue priests, but which many of the ordinary Irish community uphold.

The gay groups would have to settle for protesting with their placards from the sidelines of the parade.

And for the organizers’ stand, New York’s Mayor Bill de Blasio would take no part in the march in a protest of his own, because of what he perceived as a “ban on open participation” of LGBT groups, clearly a reactionary move in support of the vote of this fast growing faction.

Why would gays insist on shoving their blatant agenda down the throats of the organizers of an event that for the greater part is rooted in the Christian figure of a saint? That their strong lobbying has been moving some mountains indeed manifests itself in the position taken too by Boston’s Mayor Martin Walsh, himself of Irish stock.

He refused to join his own city march because he perceived a lack of accommodation of LGBT marketing and self-promotion in the parade as oppression and “I have to do my best to ensure that all Bostonians are free to participate fully in the civic life of our city”.

St Paddy would have been mortified –– not taking into account that he has long been mort –– by the knowledge of these developments being pursued in his name.

We would not deny the LGBT corporation and advocates anywhere their right to participate in the civic life of their country. But we do not have to take their coordinated, irreverent and selfish advertising and excess gay propaganda stances.

Our concern is that too many Barbadians mimic the foolishness that passes for freedom and personal rights exercise and practice in the United States, and that the LGBT groups among us might think the portrayal of St Patrick’s Day in New York and Boston is the way to go.

We would hate to think that for Barbadian gays to be satisfied they are free to jump on Foreday Morning and on Kadooment Day, they must carry LGBT banners and signs to be assured a secure place among us as citizens.

Imagine for a moment our brothers and sisters of alternative vision and feelings applying the St Patrick’s parade “principle” in demanding the attention of employers and work colleagues by flaunting with impunity their sexual preferences, bulwarked by portage of LGBT paraphernalia. This would be tantamount to sexual harassment in the workplace.

Such a transpiration would sadden us; not just because these manifestations are deemed contrary to Scripture. Making the rest of us unnecessarily uncomfortable is inimical to the very tolerance the LGBT advocates seek from us. And this smacks nothing of homophobia.

O Danny Boy!

One Response to Not very far from sexual harassment

Sanderson Rowe March 23, 2014 at 11:03 pm

We may be too late, the horse is already out of the stable. St Patrick was credited too, with getting rid of all the snakes in Ireland.

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